Unconsoleable

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye

After 137 wonderful episodes, we bid you, our faithful listeners, the very fondest of farewells. We've arrived at the metaphorical fork in the road, and we don't even care what a dreadful cliché that is. We hope you've had as much fun, learned as much, and generally had as good a time as we have with Unconsoleable.

Remember, aloha means goodbye, but it also means hello and love: so to you, our listeners, aloha!

Keep in touch:

• @jessicadennis and @annatarkov on twitter
• Anna's new venture, Indie Sidekick
• Email Anna
• Email Jessica

The Real Doggins viewing one of his many awards

They make charming games, have an adorable dog, work side by side while staying happily married, and did we mention the cute dog?

Who are these fabulous guests? Why, it's Brooke and David Condolora of indie game studio Brain & Brain, of course.

We chatted with the dynamic duo about how they got started in games, struck out on their own, and possibly invented the quiet adventure genre in the process.

We also dug into a recent op-ed about narrative in games that has been making the rounds lately, and Brooke and David weighed in.

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us if you too have a cute dog we should meet :-)

Stuff we mentioned:

• Burly Men at Sea (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Doggins (iOS & Android)
• King’s Quest IV
• Star Trek episode “Spock’s Brain”
• Alastair Humphreys
• Oregon Trail
• Odell Lake
• Apple IIGS
• Oregon Trail postmortem at GDC 2016
• Fangamer merch
• Society6 merch
• Thimbleweed Park viewmasters
• Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise (iOS & Android)
• Sword & Sworcery (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Mini Metro (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Amanita Design
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Ian Bogost’s piece
• Papers, Please
• The Wind Rises
• Hidden Folks (iOS & Steam)

It counts as exercise if you're sitting on one of those balls

Practice makes perfect, and massive congratulations are in order for Jessica. Why? You'll find out right at the top of the episode.

As is often the case, the App Store is experiencing a bit of a drought right now, but good stuff is coming. In the meantime, we experience the crap and the mediocre stuff and tell you all about it :-)

Meanwhile, Facebook continues to believe it'll be a force in games, but we're not so sure, and neither are the devs we spoke to. And in something of a reversal, we have developers being crappy instead of gamers. It might all be ok, though, with a little in-game retail therapy headed our way soon, but could we try not being crappy too? Nintendo, that also means you :-/

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us if you’d like to finance our game merch addictions :D

Stuff we mentioned:

• Alan’s episode
• Pocket Card Jockey
• Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
• Matt Ditton’s episode
• Fairyland Story (iOS only)
• Shooty Skies (iOS & Android)
• Snipperclips
• Lost Maze (iOS & Android)
• Vignettes (iOS only)
• Please Don’t Touch Anything (iOS & Android)
• App Unwrapper
• Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise (iOS & Android)
• July 4, 1956 (iOS only)
• The Last Door (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Invert (iOS & Android)
• Tetris music
• Maize Wallin
• Tape it Up (iOS only)
• Topsoil
• Ninja Pizza Girl
• Nicole Stark
• Facebook still trying to court developers
• Ben at Mighty Games
• Developers being shitty
• Shopify is partnering with Unity  
• Candy Crush + Moschino
• No more NES Classic Minis

A pod of hint whales

His games drive us nuts, but we can't help loving them anyway. So after much trash talk, we welcome puzzle master extraordinaire (and Unconsoleable listener!) Alan Hazelden to the show.

Alan tells us a bit about what he did before making devilishly challenging puzzle games, how he goes about designing and testing his games, which developers he looks up to, and even his favorite pizza toppings :-)

But wait, there's more! We also tell Alan how he can turn his games into F2P gold mines so the next time he comes on the show, he can have a Notch house of his very own :-p Of course we kid. None of that will happen, but it was fun to imagine!

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us if you also want to register your hate for bell peppers.

Stuff we mentioned:

• Snakebird (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Cosmic Express (iOS, Android & Steam)
• A Good Snowman is Hard to Build (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Glorious Trainwrecks
• Shit Snake
• These Robotic Hearts of Mine (iOS & Android)
• Sokobond
• PuzzleScript
• Rust Bucket (iOS & Android)
• SpaceChem
• Human Resource Machine (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Alan’s recent interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Deus Ex: GO (iOS & Android)
• Mekorama (iOS & Android)
• Stephen Lavelle
• English Country Tune (iOS & Steam)
• Stephen’s Sausage Roll
• Terry Cavanaugh
• VVVVVV (iOS, Android & Steam)
• QWOP
• GIRP
• Ira Glass
• TypeShift (iOS only)
• Benjamin Davis
• Kami 2 (iOS only)
• Cheesing
• Abuse Alan on Twitter

Listen up

Jessica is a big puddle of feels after playing the long-awaited conclusion to our 2016 Game of the Year and is charmed by an as-yet-unreleased charming game from the charming folks at Mighty Games. We conclude that quick-play games might not be as special as the games that truly win our hearts, but are still pretty awesome.

Anna is left wanting more after playing a horror-themed puzzle game that has just arrived on iOS from Steam, but the real rage is directed at a mobile-first game that has an awful control scheme, rendering it virtually unplayable. Luckily, a silly but fun game with impeccable controls comes to the rescue!

We roll our eyes pretty hard at the best mobile game BAFTA winner, as we do for most winners in the mobile category of various games awards. We wish awards would go more often to games that are truly the best rather than those that are the best known.

Meanwhile, should games display the battery indicator? What’s a fun new way to get hints in a new adventure game? How long can we neglect our laundry? And what non-curse words will we lob at our guest next week? Listen now to find out!

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us to tell us how long you’ve neglected your laundry :-p

Stuff we mentioned:

• Love You to Bits (iOS only for now)
• Charming Runes (not yet released by Mighty Games)
• Break Liner (iOS & Android)
• Let's Go Rocket (iOS & Android)
• Crossy Road (iOS, Android & Microsoft devices)
• Rare Sloth
• King Rabbit (iOS only)
• Slayaway Camp (iOS & Steam)
• After the End (iOS only)
• Legend of the Skyfish (iOS, Android & Steam)
• MouseBot (iOS & Android)
• BAFTA winners announced
• Reigns (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Clash Royale (iOS & Android)
• Pocket Card Jockey
• Twine hints for Thimbleweed Park
• Alan Hazelden
• Cosmic Express (iOS, Android & Steam)
• A Good Snowman is Hard to Build (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Johnny Dangerously
• The Usual Suspects

Admit it: this is how you eat Nutella

We just love when people discover mobile games all of a sudden and pretend that they all sucked up until that moment! Did we say love? We meant the opposite.

But first, Thimbleweed Park is out and we hope you’re as excited as we are! Toilet paper options! Helpful to-do lists! And more! Neither of us has finished the game, and we’ll eventually have members of the team on the show, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, Jessica and Anna both play the sequel to a pretty puzzle game. The results vary, but we definitely agree it's gorgeous. Jessica spends some time in the beautiful world of another game, while Anna definitely hasn’t got the hang of a new card-based strategy game just yet.

And is it good, annoying, or both when games get so popular that they spawn merchandise, movies, and yes, apparently even game shows? Is anyone more excited about the new Room game than Jessica? Are your favorite iOS games going to stop working? Listen now to find out.

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us to confess that you too eat Nutella straight from the spoon.

Stuff we mentioned:

• Thimbleweed Park
• Toilet paper options!
• Ron Gilbert
• Gary Winnick
• Ron’s episode
• Jenn’s episode
• Pavilion (iOS, & Steam)
• Accessibility in games
• Our 2016 GOTY episode
• Kami 2 (iOS only)
• Kami (iOS & Android)
• Pinchworm (iOS only)
• State of Play
• Card Thief (iOS only)
• Swap Sword (iOS only)
• Card Thief’s first week
• Card Crawl (iOS & Android)
• King Rabbit (iOS only)
• Candy Crush game show is coming
• Mario Lopez
• Wipeout
• Double Dare
• Neko Atsume movie
• Barry Meade’s episode
• A new Room game is coming
• Jessica’s tweet in Touch Arcade
• Disney Crossy Road figurines
• Scurvy Scallywags (iOS & Android)
• Verge article
• Kotaku Australia article

The most dangerous game

Why has Jessica been eating her ship’s crewmates? Could a card-based strategy game have struck her fancy, even though she usually shuns the genre? What new heights has her horsey game obsession reached? And what awesome new toy does she have to add to her collection? All these questions and more will be answered!

Meanwhile, Anna is all in on puzzle games lately, but wonders whether she should be allowed to play them at all. An old nemesis of a game is tackled again and somewhat defeated, but is there any pleasure in the victory? Maybe we’d both rather be shifting letters instead in the latest offering from a favorite dev.

Of course there’s always sighing at Nintendo to be done, and we continue that long and sad tradition here. But hey, Kickstarter has done something interesting! Finally, we ponder a story about Jewish game developers in these troubled times.

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us if you’ve ever cannibalized someone. Or maybe… don’t.

Stuff we mentioned:

• Thimbleweed Park
• Jenn Sandercock
• Jessica’s bookshelf of games stuff
• Alto’s Adventure llamas
• Thimbleweed Park t-shirts
• American Apparel
• TypeShift (iOS only)
• Zach Gage
• Sage Solitaire is what Anna meant to say (iOS & Android)
• Really Bad Chess (iOS only)
• Card Thief (iOS only)
• Pocket Card Jockey
• Card Crawl (iOS & Android)
• Sunless Sea (iPad & Steam)
• Failbetter Games
• Fallen London (iOS, Android, & browser)
• Ben Weatherall
• Cosmic Express (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Snakebird (iOS, Android & Steam)
• The episode where Anna yelled about Snakebird
• Alan Hazelden
• Ending (iOS & Android)
• Rust Bucket (iOS & Android)
• Nelly Cootalot (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Super Mario Run is now on Android
• Nintendo is doubling production of the Switch
• Our Gaming Yoda
• Tomorrow Corp.
• NES Classic Mini
• RPS story about Cheap Golf
• Jessica’s other alleged podcast
• Gamasutra article about Jewish gamedevs
• Black man a victim of hate crime in NYC
• Where Richard Spencer’s money comes from

It's actually pretty unsafe for a child to be alone with a horse. And she's holding that carrot wrong.

Jessica and Anna are back with a vengeance from PAX East and GDC respectively, and we have a lot to talk about. We played some new games on our journeys of course, but the best part about any conference is the people!

Jessica’s love affair with horsey games has taken a bizarre turn, thanks to a new friend from PAX East. It’s weird, it’s unsettling, and it might have some problematic elements! What is this mystery game? You’ll need to listen to find out.

Anna might have a new favorite developer after GDC (and he certainly knows how to entice Jessica to play his game), but is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship or the dawn of a frustrating, rage-inducing future? (Spoiler alert: it’s both :-))

A big change has also come to the games area of the App Store and we think it rocks. And is Jessica more powerful and influential than she realizes? All signs point to yes!

Please rate and review us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter (and follow Jessica and Anna too), like us on Facebook, buy our merch, our other merch, and email us if you can recommend other horse games for us to play, maybe less creepy ones.

Stuff we mentioned:

• Pocket Card Jockey
• I Need Diverse Games
• Tanya DePass
• Jenn Sandercock
• Ben Britten
• Miellyn Barrows
• My Horse Prince (iOS & Android)
• City of Love (iOS & Android)
• Hatoful Boyfriend (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Jessica’s tiny horse
• Hexarden
• Spry Fox
• Night in the Woods
• Ooblets
• Mineko’s Night Market
• Andrew Fray
• Thomas Brand
• Katherine Cross
• Thimbleweed Park
• Ryan Cash
• Snowman
• Desert Alto
• Unconsoleable GDC event
• Luke from Prettygreat
• Joel McDonald
• Asher Vollmer
• Steve and Maureen
• Sabriel Mastin
• GX3
• Cosmic Express (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Indie Megabooth
• A Good Snowman is Hard to Build (iOS, Android & Steam)
• Alan Hazelden
• Beglitched (iOS & Steam)
• Euclidean Lands (iOS only)
• Old Man’s Journey
• Lumino City (iOS & Steam)
• App Store will have a permanent spot for indies
• Pocus (iOS only)
• What our stickers look like

With Anna recovering from GDC and Jessica away at PAX East, we decided to take you on another trip down memory lane, to our first real episode. We'll be back with new content next week, but meanwhile we hope you enjoy another blast from the past!

Wooohooo, we made it to episode two! Wait, that's not really a big accomplishment. Or is it? You tell us, dear listeners. 

On this episode we talk about Steam's new discovery tools, SQUEEEEE about the impending Monument Valley expansion and talk waaaay too much about Desert Golfing and how games like it and Monument Valley are wonderfully relaxing. So make yourself a chamomile tea, put on a moisturizing mask and your spa robe and enjoy the show.

Stuff we talked about:

• Steam announces new discoverability features
• A dev team is already feeling the impact
• Join OUR Steam group!
• Monument Valley new levels are coming
• Monument Valley
• Helpful article on IAPs
• Ustwo developer talks about the design of the game [VIDEO]
• The Great Totem Controversy, in tweets
• Monument Valley fan art!
• Desert Golfing
• Ars Technica piece on Desert Golfing
• Jonathan Blow

And finally.... we are officially on iTunes. If you're enjoying this podcast even a little bit, please review us.

Failure in a Box

With Anna away at GDC and Jessica ramping up the travel anxiety prior to PAX East, we decided to take a little break and re-release our very first episode, Failure in a Box. 

Hey look, it's the inaugural episode of Unconsoleable!

Learn more about your co-hosts, Anna and Jessica, our decidedly unimpressive gaming histories, why the heck we are doing this podcast, and why we game the way we do.

Stuff we talked about:

• App.net 
• Isometric
• Brianna Wu
• Revolution 60
• Evan Passero, designer extraordinaire 
• Totally Uncool
• Spawn on Me
• Civilization
• Article on kids not being able to pass Level 1 on Super Mario Brothers – Hmm, this doesn't look like a link. Turns out, this story was a hoax and all the sites that wrote about it have taken it down. That being the case, it's still quite possible we suck at games more than little kids!
• Whac a Mole - Duh, of course there is an iOS game.
• Thomas Was Alone